Motivation Quote by Craig Kelly

There is a quiet kind of swagger in the way Craig Kelly makes sponsorship sound like something sturdier than marketing. "Main sponsors since '87" lands like a timestamp from a different era of action sports, when credibility was built through years, not drops, collabs, and algorithmic relevance. He is naming longevity as a badge: not just that brands backed him, but that they stuck, and he stuck back.

The phrasing matters. He doesn't say Oakley and Burton "partnered" with him or "helped grow his platform". He says they've been his sponsors and he's been "riding for both of them" - a choice of words that keeps the relationship grounded in the physical act that made him matter in the first place. "Riding for" is almost team-sport language, hinting at loyalty, identity, and mutual obligation. It's also a subtle flex: to be sponsored that long is to have survived the sport's churn, to have stayed valuable through trends, injuries, and the steady commercialization of snowboarding.

Contextually, Kelly is speaking from the late 80s/early 90s inflection point, when Burton was turning a subculture into an industry and Oakley was helping define the look of that rebellion. The subtext is reassurance to fans and gatekeepers alike: he hasn't been bought; he's been backed. It's a line that frames professionalism as commitment, not compromise - and it captures how a pioneer could navigate selling out versus simply making a living before the culture had better language for it.